It's Thursday. I'll be 37 weeks in 2 days (Saturday) anddddd 37 weeks is considered "term." Meaning, baby boy is ready and labor could come any time! AND it also means that I proved myself wrong in thinking I'd never make it this far. Pretty exciting.
We took our Baby Care Basics and Childbirth classes last weekend. The baby care class was awesome - only 2.5 hours and everything we covered was super helpful. The fake babies we used were totally creepy looking, but I do feel much more confident about taking care of a newborn now. The childbirth class wasn't as great. It was SO long (unnecessarily long I think, and during Sunday football - luckily it was a Ravens Bye week), and I honestly felt like I already knew everything they covered. We did watch some disturbing birth videos though, which Kyle really enjoyed (HA), and I think he definitely learned some stuff (he's not as big into the labor/birthing research as I am), so hopefully that will allow him to know more about what's going on while we are in the hospital. Overall, I'm still glad we did both though and glad it's checked off the list!
I had my 36 week appointment on Tuesday. They did a Group B Strep test - just a swab of your cervix to see if you have Group B Strep. Apparently 1/3 of people have it and it doesn't cause any problems in a normal person, but if you have it and deliver a baby naturally it can be passed on to the baby through the birth canal and make them sick. I haven't gotten my results back yet, but basically if I test positive, it will just mean that they will need to give me an IV of antibiotics during labor to prevent passing any issues to the baby. That test was a piece of cake compared to the second purpose of the appointment which was my cervix check...
I swear this doctor (another new lady we haven't had before) shoved her entire arm up to her elbow in there. I was SO not expecting the forcefulness of this - holy crap. I screamed it hurt so bad. And honestly it was so fast I don't know how she could tell anything from what she did, but apparently, I'm not dilated at all yet. Great. I was kinda frustrated that my body wasn't showing any signs of progress yet, but it's still early so I'm trying to be patient. The bad news is that I need to get these cervix checks done every week now and after that unpleasant experience, I'm not looking forward to the rest of them...
Now that I'm 37 weeks and know I'm not dilated at all, the walking has begun. I've gone this whole pregnancy trying to "take it easy" by not walking more than needed, taking the elevator instead of the stairs, etc. But now it's eviction time! Although I feel like I'm going to die after just walking a short distance, I'm going to try and do it as much as possible now to hopefully get this boy moving in the downward direction!!
Pretty sure I've mentioned this to everyone I know (and on here too), but I'd LOVE if he came sometime in the week after Thanksgiving. That way the holiday will be over, we will have our Christmas tree, the house will be decorated, and everything will be ready. Of course since that's what I want to happen, I'm sure it won't, but I'm gonna hope anyway. I reallyyyyy don't want to be in the hospital past my due date in the middle of December - who wants to spend Christmas-time in the hospital?! No thank you!
He's definitely getting bigger, so hopefully Coleson decides he's running out of space in there and wants to meet us soon. Maybe stuffing my belly with Thanksgiving food will help :)